When color photographic materials are stored as records semipermanently, it is demanded that the extent of light-fading and dark-fading be suppressed as much as possible and that the color balance of three-color fading among the yellow, magenta, and cyan dye images be retained as in the initial state. However, sometimes when color photographic materials are stored in an environment high in humidity, the dark-fading of the yellow dye image is greater than the dark-fading of the other two colors, which greatly deteriorates the image quality.
When the so-called pyrazoloazole magenta couplers, represented by those described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,540,654 and 4,882,266, were put in practice, color prints became available that give good sensitometry and good color reproduction in red, are stained less, and are excellent in image preservability.
On the other hand, yellow couplers conventionally used have such defects that the maximum absorption wavelength of the dye to be formed is situated on the long wavelength side for the absorption characteristics preferable for color reproduction and that the absorption in the long wavelength region over 500 nm does not decrease sharply to zero, and therefore these yellow couplers are unsatisfactory to obtain color reproduction excellent for hues such as yellow and green. To obviate such problems, it is considered to use couplers that give a yellow dye whose maximum absorption wavelength is relatively on the short wavelength side, as disclosed, for example, in JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) No. 173499/1926.
However, when the above magenta coupler, in particular, a magenta coupler having a suitable coupling speed, and the above short wavelength-type yellow coupler are used, although the obtained color photograph is high in density, low in fogging, and excellent in color reproduction, it has been found that when the color photograph is stored for a long period of time, the density of the magenta in the yellow image becomes high, raising a problem of mixing of colors during the storage of the image, and therefore it is desired to favorably keep excellent color reproduction even during the storage of images.
To solve these problems, for example, JP-A Nos. 50048/1989, 50049/1989, and 4041/1986 disclose the use of cyclic ether compounds or epoxy group-containing compounds, but although it is recognized that these compounds are effective to a certain extent for the improvement of dark-fading of yellow dye images due to heat and humidity, the improvement is still insufficient.